Feedback Cultures Fail, Unless They Start Here

Feedback feels risky. It triggers defenses, kills enthusiasm, and sometimes even makes people dread going to work.

Still, leaders keep asking, “How do we build a feedback culture that lasts?” This is not because they lack intent—most genuinely want teams that speak up, grow together, and move faster. But too often, culture change gets lost in training sessions, performance reviews, or posters on the wall.

The most resilient feedback cultures we’ve seen are grounded in one critical element:

Organizational values that people live by, not stick on a wall as big words.

Here’s how one fast-growing European SaaS company with remote teams across five countries used values—specifically Integrity—to transform feedback from an awkward formality into an everyday behavior.

Their story offers a high-level overview of the areas and steps we believe any organization should consider when turning values into action.

When feedback is a performance event, not a daily habit

When we first engaged with this company, the feedback was mainly top-down. It happened (badly) in annual reviews, formal assessments, or in response to problems. Teams hesitated to speak up, and managers often defaulted to silence or superficial praise.

Despite having a beautifully crafted set of values, feedback didn’t feel culturally supported, let alone encouraged.

So we went back to the root: values. But instead of dusting off the ones already printed on the website, we asked the leadership team:

“What value needs to come alive for feedback to work around here?”

Five steps to build a Feedback Culture that lasts

1. Turn a value into actionable behaviors

In a leadership workshop, we invited the team to select a value they believed could boost an authentic feedback culture. Their answer: Integrity.

For them, Integrity meant honesty with care, doing the right thing over the easy thing, and giving feedback about growth, not ego.

So we co-created a prototype of behaviors that would make Integrity visible and practical in daily interactions:

“Speak up even when it’s uncomfortable.”

“Ask for honest feedback and receive it with openness.”

“Give feedback that’s direct, kind, and growth-oriented.”

This prototype wasn’t pushed top-down. It was shared across the organization—tested, discussed, and refined in team meetings, Slack threads, and informal conversations. Every team had the chance to challenge the language and contribute their perspective.

That cross-level involvement turned Integrity into something people didn’t just agree with—they felt ownership of it.

2. Leaders go first

Once the values and behaviors were defined, the next step was clear: leaders had to model them visibly and consistently.

We trained all people leaders to:

Give CLEAR and CALM feedback

Publicly ask for feedback, even when the stakes are high

Acknowledge their missteps, errors, and mistakes, and what they learned from them

When leaders go first, they normalize the behavior and make it safe. By showing how to give and receive feedback with openness and care, they create learning moments for others.

When they keep going, they make it sustainable.

3. Communicate the why, and make the message stick

With values in motion and leadership modeling the change, we helped the company launch a communication campaign to bring everyone into the story.

But it wasn’t about slick presentations. It was about clarity, honesty, and shared ownership. The message was simple:

Here’s what Integrity means to us and why it is essential for our business and people

Here’s how we created these behaviors together

Here’s what’s going to change, what you can expect, and how you’ll be involved—we care about your input

They used real stories, short videos, live Q&As, and Slack campaigns. Leaders shared moments when they received hard feedback and how it helped them improve.

The result? People saw that feedback wasn’t just encouraged—it was modeled, supported, and tied to something bigger than themselves.

4. Translate abstract aspiration into concrete action and small, sustainable habits

Culture doesn’t change in all-hands meetings. It changes in 1:1s, team check-ins, and the habits that shape daily work. Yet this step is skipped repeatedly, assuming that values and lofty aspirations will emerge independently. They don’t. They must be translated, practiced, and made tangible through real-world habits.

So we helped teams translate Integrity-based feedback into simple, repeatable actions and habits:

The marketing team launched a weekly 'Feedback Highlight' on the company intranet, featuring real stories of team members giving and receiving feedback with Integrity. It became popular for celebrating learning moments and encouraging others to follow suit.

Another team started giving Slack shout-outs using values-based language, highlighting when someone gave great feedback or responded calmly.

The tech teams introduced 'Failure Fridays'—a monthly session where employees, starting with leaders, shared mistakes, lessons learned, and what they'd do differently next time. One leader shared a failed product rollout and how the lack of early feedback led to major rework.

"I thought I’d get in trouble," she said, "but instead, people thanked me for being honest. That changed how I see this team."

"I never thought I’d look forward to sharing a mistake, and be thanked for it. But now, it feels like a chance to learn, not something to hide."

Before 'Failure Fridays,' most teams kept mistakes to themselves. People feared being judged or misunderstood. By exposing failures and connecting them to growth, the company made feedback safer, more practical, and less stigmatized.

These small moves created consistency and safety. Feedback stopped being an event and became part of the rhythm.

5. Align systems to reinforce the culture

The final step was to ensure that feedback behaviors didn’t exist in isolation. They needed to be reinforced by the company's systems and structures.

Together, we updated several processes to include feedback as a core element explicitly:

Performance reviews to evaluate not just outcomes, but also how feedback was given and received

Hiring criteria to prioritize learning agility and openness to feedback

Onboarding content to include values-based feedback expectations from day one

Recognition programs to highlight “feedback champions” across the org

When people saw that Integrity and feedback behaviors were linked to recognition, advancement, and leadership, they took it seriously.

Culture becomes real when it shows up in how people are hired, promoted, and rewarded.

The results: from formal feedback to everyday growth

Six months later, the shift was tangible:

Feedback was showing up in meetings, retros, onboarding, and daily communication

People said, “It’s normal to challenge ideas here, and that’s a good thing.”

Leaders were sharing how feedback changed their decisions and leadership styles

Most importantly, feedback was nothing to fear—it was something people expected, embraced, and used to grow.

Final thought: Integrity builds the bridge

Feedback isn’t just about communication. It’s about trust.

If you want a culture where people speak up, start by asking:

“What value do we need to live more fully to make that possible?”

The answer for this company was Integrity, which made all the difference.

So the next time you think about building a feedback culture, don’t start with a workshop or a tool. Start with the value that drives who you want to be and how you want to act:

Here’s a secret most people overlook: values aren’t just for companies—they’re a hidden lever for personal transformation. When you align with the right one, it’s like unlocking a code to who you’re becoming.